Human Footprint change

Human Footprint change

What is Human Footprint?

The Human Footprint measures the cumulative impact of direct pressures on nature from human activities. Individual pressures were placed within a 0–10 scale and summed, giving a cumulative score of human pressure ranging from 0 to 50. A Human Footprint score below 3 indicates land which is predominantly free of permanent infrastructure, but may hold sparse human populations. A Human Footprint score of 4 is equal to pasture lands, and is a reasonable threshold of when land can be considered “human dominated” and species are likely to be threatened by habitat conversion. A Human Footprint score of 7 is equal to agriculture, above which a landscape will contain multiple pressures, for example agriculture with roads and other associated infrastructure, and is therefore highly modified by humans.